Source:  Lisa M. Keefe, MEATINGPLACE.COM, 12/11/09

Weighing in the day after Smithfield's surprisingly good second-quarter earnings announcement, several Wall Street analysts boosted their year-end earnings expectations and their projections for the performance of the stock.

J.P. Morgan's Ken Goldman increased his expectations for earnings per share in fiscal 2010, closing at the end of April, to earnings of 4 cents per share, up from a loss of 61 cents per share previously. His target price for the stock now is $24 a share, up from a target price of $14 a share, although Goldman did not change his rating on the stock, which still is "overweight".

Goldman's disappointment in the progress of herd reduction among hog producers prompted him to drop his estimates for earnings in fiscal 2011, to $1.71 per share from $1.94 per share previously.

At BMO Capital Markets, Ken Zaslow maintained his target price for the stock, at $13, and also his rating at "market perform," even as he boosted his expectations for earnings per share in fiscal 2010. Zaslow now expects Smithfield to lose 51 cents per share in fiscal 2010, up from an estimated loss of 79 cents per share previously.

Zaslow did not change his estimates for Smithfield's earnings in fiscal 2011; they remain at $1.18 per share.

Farha Aslam, analyst for Stephens Inc., rates the stock at "overweight" and has a price target of $20. She increased her estimates for operating earnings per share to a loss of 32 cents, from a loss of 65 cents previously, although she, too, kept her projections for earnings per share in fiscal 2011 at their previous level of $1.35.